Norway 2009, Day 9, Nusfjord (Lofoten), July 12th, 2009

8:59am, Skagen Campground (finally found the official name of the place we've been camping at the past 2 nights)...

Heard some rain early in the morning. It's much cooler in the tent without the sun baking us. Cleaned up the dirty dishes, and then ate cereal/oats for breakfast. The mine across the road from camp is quiet on Saturday and Sunday, a very pleasant time to stay here. Lost some soap in the shower last night (left it accidently). It's cloudy out, but not cold.

1st pic is from Skagen Campground, the familiar walk to the kitchen/bathrooms for water, with the inactive mine (on the weekends) across the road. 2nd pic is also from camp, walking back towards our tent...

4:44pm, Skagen Camping

Sitting in the car with the windows down, stomach stuffed to the max with delightful gourmet Arctic fare. It's a pleasant 19 degrees C out, according to the car's thermometer, under the sun. Ready to pass out...

We had a small breakfast this morning, anticipating a lunch buffet at an Artic restaurant that we noticed in Ramberg nearby. We then drove to Nusfjord, separately from Karl and Mariann, who would be hiking/fishing at their own pace with Darwin, planning to meet up with us later for lunch at the restaurant. The drive to Nusfjord was only ~10km from camp, and didn't take long to reach the empty small town at 9:30am, but it took us awhile to find the trailhead for the hike to Nesland. Having found it after driving around a few minutes, we followed a trail, but took a wrong turn and had to back track 15 minutes to a sign marked "fiskerie", which we realized was pointing to the correct trail. The terrain today looked very dull compared to our recent hikes, but this trail gets a lot of advertising in the guide books.

Some pics looking out over the small authentic fishing village of Nusfjord. The town is full of birds, and is a heritage town, purposefully kept vintage. In fact you have to pay an entrance fee just to tour the town, though they let us in for free, to get to the trailhead at the far end. This town was mobbed a few days ago at 1pm when we checked it out, but totally empty at 9:30am today. Lots of birds on the rock in the 2nd pic...

A look back towards the costal houses of Nusfjord from a lookout point on the trail. We had missed the turn-off for the correct trail, and back-tracked to this "Fiskerie" sign (means "fishery")...

A look ahead south along the rocky coast towards Nesland. Saw some birds along the trail. The terrain was rather dull, relative to our previous hikes, and reminded us of the Colorado foothills, except with an ocean...

Despite the dullness, we continued, wondering if something impressive would pop up. At least we were building up an appetite for the lunch buffet. A ladder along the way was cool...

A look to the north along the coast, from the direction we came...

It wasn't until ~2hrs on the trail (wrong turn included) that we encountered anyone on the trail. It sounded like someone ahead was talking on a cellphone. They are pictured, along with a small wooden tower that came into view ahead. 2nd pic is a zoomed shot of the Lofoten coast to the north. Svolvaergeita may be among the furthest faded mountains...

We didn't see many wildflowers in Lofoten, but found a patch along the trail today. After another 30 minutes on the trail, we reached the area with the wooden structure, located near a vast outcrop of cairns...

The cairn field was cool. This also marked the end of our hike, as Nesland could be seen in valley ahead. The hike was a disappointment (for Lofoten), and had a ton of up and down along the coastline. Too bad we couldn't have put that elevation work into a mountain...

A look at the wooden structure, I think it was a fish drying rack...

This area was worth visiting, but I'd recommend starting from Nesland, instead of Nusjord, which would make it a 15-20 minute walk, instead of a 2hr hike with lots of up and downs (and not enough scenery to make it worthwhile)...

A look south towards the town of Nesland. Drive there, and hike out to this point instead. With my telephoto, I could zoom in to view the Reinebringen ridge that we hiked yesterday. Karl and I made it to the highest point, Wendy stopped at the 2nd highest point (just to the left)...

We headed back ~12:30pm, and made good time. This hike is a good way to save on camera battery and disk space. Here's a couple pics on the way back. Despite the "drab" scenery (relatively), we still enjoyed ourselves...

The sun came out a bit as we returned. The cloudy skies today had been putting a damper on the colors. We got back to the trailhead ~1:45pm. Here's a rorbuer cabin along the sea, red as usual...

We called K & M when we arrived at our car, but got no answer, so we headed into town to check out Nusfjord. We found their car parked in the lot, and walked around the small town, hoping to see them fishing someplace. Birds were the main attraction for us (we didn't pay for the museums), and I had many opportunities to play with my camera.

These 2 birds look like they are sleeping, or maybe pretending to sleep, but spying on something. The area here was noisy with all the squaking...

More bird nests on the big rock in town...

Those 2 birds and now awake and having a conversation. A look down the wharf in Nusfjord...

Not sure Santa is gonna want to visit this chimney, given all the white goop. These 2 birds found a good place to nest over a window...

These birds will nest anywhere...

Here's a wide view of Nusfjord from above the rock that had all the birds nests. From here I took the above pics with my zoom lens...

Some diving exhibitions are based from Nusfjord, as we see some divers ready to head out. One last look at the bird rock in town, from the wharf...

We didn't find K & M anywhere, so just left a note on their car telling them we'd be at the lunch buffet in Ramberg, if they felt like meeting up. We left Nusfjord at 2:45pm, and made it to the Ramberg Arctic restaurent ~15 minutes later, with BIG appetites. Only on Sunday do they have a lunch buffet, and there is nothing else on the menu to order at this time. Wendy was wary at first, since buffets often have lesser quality dishes, compared to ordering a specialty entree, but after checking out the buffet table, we were quickly rest assured that this would be a high quality, high variety, meal. It was simply awesome. We saw varieties of salmon, lamb, shrimp, crayfish, salads, potatoes, and a dessert bar. And all-you-can eat of this gourmet, organic, local cuisine for 225 NOK (~$34)! Even cheaper than a single entree normally. So we began our food adventure, exploring all the fine dishes. The food was served in pots taken straight from the stove, and tasted so tender and rich. I managed 4 plates of food, and 3 trips to the dessert table. Towards the end of our meal, they brought out new lamb and cod dishes. It was a shame we were already so full to not take advantage of the additional plates. They pretty much cooked their entire menu, and put it out on the buffet. Would have been great to stay there all day. :-) It was interesting to experience Norwegian dessert food. They had many light ice cream loafs, sherbert, and gelled fluff-like stuff. So good!

Ramberg sits on a white sand beach facing the north. We drove through this town so many times in the past 3 days. Our restaurent for lunch is in this town...

A pic of plate #1 for me at lunch. The flayed thing at the top of my plate is a hot dog (had to try it, cause it looked cool). Hot dogs are actually very popular here. We had our fill of all sorts of seafood and Lofoto-lamb. My only regret is that I didn't take more pics of the buffet...

10:11pm, Skagen Camping

So nice out! I'm in shorts and a t-shirt, in the sun at 10pm. It was 26 degrees C today, about as hot as it gets all year here. It's hard to go to bed early, but tonight we have the opportunity to, and need to get good sleep to take advantage of our last 2 days in Lofoten.

I ended the last journal entry to do laundry with Wendy at the camp's kitchen. They had a washer and dryer, but at ~$9 each, we opted to use their plastic basins, and wash by hand, since we had the time this afternoon. We hoped that hanging the clothes on the tent, under the never setting sun, would dry them in adequate time. There was lots of sun, but no wind today.

After finishing laundry duties, we were about to head to the beach for a walk, when K & M returned with their catches of the day. 3 fish! They were hungry and immediately began prepping them to cook. It was 6:30pm, but given our large and late lunch, we were in no mood for dinner, so we hit the beach.

Wendy tried out the Nalgene bottle-shaking laundry method. After a good workout of wringing cloths, we decorated the tent, and used some string for a makeshift clothes line (brought just for this purpose)...

Karl smiles triumphantly at his first catch with the new pole (pic taken by M). We watched them cut up the fish, and cook it in a pot...

The beach was pleasant, and we hung out, listening to the sheep in the distance. There was this one sheep that had the most sincerely distressed, "wah" call, it made me think of Randy in Christmas story, when he's not happy in the puffy suit..

I ventured into the 10 degrees C water, and found it to be pleasantly numbing. Some spots were warmer than others...

The low arcing sun in Norway makes it confusing to tell direction. You really need to know the time of day, to know where the sun should be. Back at camp we monitor the laundry. Still pretty damp. We take showers, and plan for tomorrow. I chat with the camp owner, and he highly recommends hiking to Kvalvika beach near Fredvang. We aim to hike there in the morning, then drive to Moskenes to setup camp near the ferry terminal, and then drive to A for a potential afternoon hike.

We reposition the still-damp clothes to catch as much sun as possible this evening...

Still so full from the huge late lunch. No dinner for us tonight. What a great meal...